Calcium as the associative signal for a model of Hebbian plasticity: application to multi-input environments

The sign and magnitude of bi-directional synaptic plasticity have been shown to depend on: the rate of presynaptic stimulation, the level of postsynaptic depolarization, and the precise relative timing between pre and postsynaptic spikes. It has been proposed that these different induction paradigms can coexist, and be accounted for by a single learning rule that depends on the dynamics of intracellular calcium concentration. We extend this rule to a multi-synaptic environment, where collective properties such as cooperativity, competition and selectivity can be investigated.